Tag Archives: family legacy

When a member of the rising generation in a family business proposes changing some aspects of how the business is run, members of the incumbent generation may, incorrectly or not, perceive their initiative as telling them that they, personally, are outdated. That they are no longer needed and should surrender their leadership role. The incumbents’ reactions to this perceived threat can have a caustic effect on the business with reverberations felt by all stakeholders.

This situation is particularly challenging if the family has not developed a culture of conversation about the interface of the family and the business, whether about introducing innovation and change initiatives, or about the transition of leadership between generations. Conversations like these may be difficult, but if avoided the outcomes born of silence can be even more challenging.

If you and your family have established protocols for conducting conversations like these, you have taken an important step towards ensuring your long-term success.

Lacking an established protocol for conversation, a perceived threat can be diffused if a proposal for change is offered with care and tact, in a way that—by reflecting human nature—facilitates the incumbent leadership receiving it openly. Key elements of this strategy are:

Showing respect for the past while presenting a vision for the future.

Recognizing and acknowledging the vision, labor and accomplishments of the incumbent generation and those that came before them.

Declaring an understanding of the importance of the family legacy and the desire to carry that forward.

Since this tactic supports and validates the efforts of the incumbent generation, it may circumvent the perception of the proposed change being seen as a threat.

However, that the incumbent generation will eventually be supplanted by the rising generation is not a threat, but a fact. So for them a different strategy may be appropriate. It may be valuable for them to recognize that transitioning out of the leadership role does not signify a departure from the business or the family. They may assume new and equally important roles; as spokesperson, senior advisor, nurturing next-generation leaders, and passing on the family values and history.

Change, for better or worse, is of course inevitable. For the family that is prepared to embrace it, new adventures beckon for both the generation that transitions out of their leadership roles and for the new generations that succeed them.

I saw my internist recently, and we started to talk about a book written by neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, entitled “Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery.” In it the author gives a viscerally disturbing account of what can go wrong in surgery and with the brain itself. He speaks about risk, he speaks about his growing experience and skill and he speaks about caring.

During this conversation my mind jumped, by association, to a principle of family business called stewardship.[1]

As a steward of my family business my leadership role is to receive the business from my predecessors, grow the business, the family wealth, the family itself, and then pass this multifaceted inheritance on to the next generation in better shape than it was in when I received it. More than do no harm, stewardship of a family business aims at building health and vigor and creating an ever greater family legacy.

The challenges of stewardship change as the business develops. The responsibilities of sole proprietorship differ from those carried by the head of a business with family members working in management or as employees. It changes when the founder’s children are born, and changes too when brothers, sisters and cousins become part of the picture.

At The Family Business Leader™ we help you meet the varied challenges of family-business stewardship and bequeath a healthy and vigorous inheritance to your family’s next generation… and the next.

[1] According to The Family Business Leader™: “Stewardship is defined as “a perspective that founding family members view the firm as an extension of themselves and therefore view the continuing health of the enterprise as connected with their own personal well-being.” http://www.familybusinesswiki.org/Stewardship

“My grandfather said to me, ‘Give the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.’[1]

Upon reading this, a particular family-business story came to mind: A friend of mine, the youngest sibling in a second-generation family business was frustrated by his father’s strong-minded control and by his older siblings’ apparent apathy. He saw that rather than giving their best, his siblings were showing up for work daily but purposefully only “treading water” until they were able to take control of the business.

My friend had left the business once and was about to again because he was unable to give his best within the confines of the family situation.

This complex situation might well benefit from counseling. But my purpose in writing this blog entry is solely to draw awareness to the lost potential for multi-generational family legacies when family members are not raised in a culture of giving their best in whatever role life asks of them.